


Field Day

by ItFeelsSoWrite



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Ensemble Cast, F/F, F/M, Fun!, Mild Angst, Okay more angst than originally planned, mostly canon-based, post-Malachite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-27
Updated: 2015-11-14
Packaged: 2018-04-28 09:06:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5086015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItFeelsSoWrite/pseuds/ItFeelsSoWrite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In an effort to gel the tension between the Crystal gems and their new housemates, Peridot and Lapis Lazuli, Steven sets up a field day promising an afternoon of teamwork and fun. Hula Hoop marathon. Three-legged race. Egg relay. What could possibly go wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Team Up!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [celestialalignment](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=celestialalignment).



> This fic was inspired by a writing prompt that was -supposed- to be a 1000 word one shot. But uh, my hand slipped. So this will be a two-parter and considerably longer! It's got Pearlapis! It's got Amedot! It's got fluff AND it's got angst! Second part should be up within a week.

FIELD DAY  
A Steven Universe (mostly) canon-based fanfiction  
\- - -

"No, it'll work, I promise! It always does on television! And besides, Connie's never had the chance to attend one moving around so much . . . It'll be a first for everyone!" Steven reassured with an infectious energy that only Steven could. Not even Garnet's stoic facade could withstand Steven's enthusiastic persuasion. Her pursed lips curled into a convinced smile.

"Why not? At least it will give them all something to do. You set up on the beach. I'll round everyone up."

"Yeah?!" Steven gasped, but he didn't need Garnet's reaffirmation to be out the door like a bolt, nearly dropping his phone in how quickly he scrambled to fish it from his jean pocket. "Connie! Please tell me you're free!" 

\- - - - -

"Not too shabby," murmured Steven to himself, fists resting on his hips as he admired his handiwork. Before him on the beach were stations, each side by side, equipped with the supplies needed for each event. Measured lines in the sand suggested a sprint for four teams. Four hula-hoops sat in the sand beside them. Gathered at Connie's feet in an overflowing box were the more delicate and wind-prone props; Bandannas, spoons, a carton of eggs and cut lengths of rope poked out between plush foam balls, each depicting a Crying Breakfast Friends' character face.

"Do you think we have a chance at winning?" Connie asked with a hint of doubt, thumbing through the dollar store ribbons Steven had her buy on the way over; Blue for first place, red for second and white for third place, as well as a purple participation ribbon. "I mean, they're gems. I can hardly keep up with Pearl in training, and that's her going easy on me. I can't imagine what the others are capable of."

"Win or lose, it's all about having a good time, isn't it? I just thought the ribbons would be a good way to remember today. Besides, Peridot and Lapis don't really have a lot of belongings." Connie's apprehension disappeared with her smile, eyes warming upon Steven while his attention turned to the blank, multi-colored shirts at his feet. "So what color should our team be? I've got blue, pink, green and purple, but the purple is for Garnet because it's the only one I could find in an extra large. So blue, pink or green?"

"Well, not to sound too cliche, but pink is sort of your legacy, isn't it?" Connie chuckled, kneeling down to pick up and dust off the two matching pink shirts. Steven nodded vigorously with a broad grin.

"That's what I was thinking, but I didn't want to make it about me." Connie laughed some more.

"Steven, this was your idea. I'm happy to wear pink. Besides, this is perfect!" Taking the black sharpie tucked behind her ear, Connie tugged off the cap between her teeth and motioned with a twirl of her finger for Steven to turn around. "Hunch down a little," she spoke around the cap, waiting for him to comply before draping a shirt across his back. "A little more." Smoothing out the fabric, Connie inked a quick and simple likeness of Lion's face, repeating the same design on the other pink shirt before capping the sharpie and giving Steven's back a pat. "All done!" Connie held up the shirts as Steven turned around, his curiosity morphing into delight as he set eyes on their matching shirts.

"Lion! We're the Pink Lions!"

"Uh huh!" Connie giggled. "It seemed only right. I hope you don't mind."

With stars in his eyes, Steven shook his head. "They're purrrrfect."

Connie beamed, handing Steven his shirt. Mimicking Connie's twirl motion, Steven clarified, "Don't look, okay?", a hint of blush on his cheeks. 

"Oh." Connie uttered, turning politely. With her back turned to Steven, she slipped her shirt atop her overalls and listened for Steven's all-clear.

"Alright, I'm decent!" He announced, arms spread and fingers wiggling in jazz-hands fashion as he puffed out his chest to show off Connie's design as she turned. 

"You look positively fierce. And cuddly!" Connie remarked, inflaming the blush on Steven's cheeks.

"That sounds like our Lion," he laughed somewhat nervously before looking to the beach house. "I sure hope Garnet can convince them all . . ."

"Well if anyone can . . ."

Just then the screen door swung open, Garnet ducking to fit beneath the door frame. Behind her filed Amethyst, then Peridot, Pearl and somewhat reluctantly, Lapis Lazuli.

"It's Garnet!" Steven swiped up the rest of the shirts, shaking them free of sand before separating them by color and draping them over his arm. He sprinted to meet the gems halfway, handing Garnet her shirt. "I didn't think you'd want to unfuse, so you're your own team."

"Just the way I like it. Thank you, Steven."

"By the way," Steven said in a hushed tone, standing on his tiptoes to lean up into her ear, Garnet squatting to accommodate the height difference. "How'd you manage to get them all to come?"

"I threatened to banish them with the cows." Garnet answered as if it was the most natural thing in the world, patting Steven's head before straightening back up and continuing on her way. Steven stood agape, watching her go until Peridot's griping passed him by.

"Who CARES if I'm banished? I already have to share the bathroom with Lazuli and she fills my bed with WATER. COLD. WATER. That just **sits** there! At least Steven has the courtesy to drain his shower-head excretions! I could probably even train these 'cows' to do my bidding!"

"Sshyeah, okay. Have fun navigating the cow patties," Amethyst dismissed Peridot's rantings with the serenity of Opal. Peridot's chatter had become something akin to the mess of her room; nonsensical, overabundant but somehow comfortably familiar. 

"What are those?" Can they be weaponized?" Amethyst snickered. Also, hilarious. 

"Ooooh yeah, but it's pretty hard to harness their power and NOT have it backfire."

Not wanting a dung debacle, Steven decided now as good a time as any to step in. Catching up to Amethyst and Peridot's leisurely pace, Steven presented the remaining two shirt options.

"So I don't know how much Garnet told you, but we're having a field day! And that means teams! And since I know you and Pearl are around each other a lot already working on the drill, I figured you and Amethyst would make a refreshingly good pair!"

"So I'm teaming up with Amethyst?" Peridot asked, looking to her before casting a glance back at Pearl and Lapis and then warily forward at Garnet. "Good. This is the optimal match for success. What is a 'field day'?"

"It's a series of games that everyone can compete in, meant to inspire cooperation with minimal preparation and maximum fun!"

Peridot frowned, brow furrowing. "I'm still unclear on my objective." Peridot looked to her purple partner, "Amethyst?", who merely shrugged her shoulders.

"I find it's best to just roll with it. Steven gets to a point eventually."

"Exactly! But anyway, I need you two to decide on what color your team will be. Also, start thinking on a team name." Steven outstretched his arms, revealing the chest of his shirt. "Connie and I are the Pink Lions!"

"Pink Lions! Oh, how cute!" Pearl clapped her hands together, stepping up behind Amethyst. Lapis hovered just behind her, attention torn between staring at the lapping ocean waves and remaining in the present, here with Steven and her tentative allies.

"Pearl, do you have a color preference?"

"Oh, I'd be fine with anything you picked, Steven," Pearl said warmly.

"Nooooooo," Steven groaned. "Pearl, you gotta pick! It's your team."

"My team?" Steven released a deep sigh.

"I guess you didn't hear. You and Lapis are going to be teammates."

"Oh, uh . . . Steven, did you ask Lapis if that was okay?" Pearl asked nervously, her voice dropping a few notches in volume as she wringed her fingers.

"It's gotta be okay! There's no one left," Steven insisted, his once-pumped demeanor steadily losing air with each exhaustive explanation.

"It's okay," Lapis' permitted, spooking Pearl in her proximity as she stepped into the semi-circle now surrounding Steven. "We should wear blue."

Peridot scoffed. "Aren't you tired of being the monochrome marvel?"

"Blue suits me."

"And what about tall, pale and pompous over there?" Peridot fired back, motioning to Pearl who harrumphed and clenched her fists at her sides. Peridot slunk behind Amethyst. Just in case.

Lapis turned to consider Pearl, her eyes almost hard, tone blunt if not for the admiration implied, "Your pirouettes are the finest I've ever seen. I must admit I am a bit envious." Pearl's eyes widened, caught completely off guard. Blue blush blossomed in her cheeks - the only response she could manage to give in her stunned state. Lapis turned back to Peridot, motioning vaguely to Pearl's visage.

"See? It suits her, too." Pearl's blush only deepened, nearly matching the shade of the shirts Lapis calmly laid claim to, plucking the pair from Steven's arm.

"Th-thank you . . ." Pearl managed, accepting the shirt Lapis handed over with an outstretched arm.

"So I guess that means you two are green!" Steven handed Peridot and Amethyst their new shirts, then procured a handful of sharpies from his back pocket, fanning them out and offering them to the group. "You gems get brainstorming on your team symbols, I gotta catch up to Garnet and get the event roster in order." As soon as his offerings were taken, Steven jogged to do just that, leaving the two teams of two to their own devices.

"You two should be the jolly green giants," Lapis said dryly, haughty eyes on Peridot's expression as she watched Peridot's confusion morph into indignation.

"Jolly green giants? None of those words apply to the both-- HEY! Is that a jab at our height?"

"Well it would be if I could reach you." Peridot lunged for Lapis, Amethyst catching her by the shoulder before she could make any ground. Pearl did her best to stifle the singular "ha!" that nearly managed to escape.

"Whoa hey now, Tex. If you're this easy to rile up, she'll be playing you like a fiddle this whole field day. You gotta have thick skin. Let is sliiiide. Be the bigger gem."

"Big?" Peridot's face contorted, on guard but disbelieving that Amethyst would be in on this joke. Human synonyms were vastly excessive, metaphor and puns even more deliberately overcomplicated, but 'big' meant something else to Peridot now. Bigness came from inside. Bigness cared not for limb enhancers and natural build. "Big." Peridot repeated, smiling with a nod as she finally understood. 

Turning on Lapis, Peridot squared her shoulders, "There's a fascinating earth saying I overheard broadcasted on the signal receptor, how did it go? Oh yes. 'I'm rubber, you're glue, now back off before I DECIMATE YOU.'"

"Real big of ya, pardner," Amethyst muttered, releasing her hold on Peridot's shoulder with a pat before motioning with a jerk of her head to a distance farther off. "Let's be big over here, half-pint." 

Peridot followed Amethyst's lead, continuing to glower at an unimpressed Lapis until a thought crossed her mind bringing her attention forward. "Half-pint?"

Absent hostile company, Lapis turned her back on the green team's departure, finding Pearl awkwardly attentive, still clutching at her hands as if to keep their nervous tendencies at bay.

"Stop that," Lapis demanded shortly.

"Stop what?" Pearl asked, neck shrinking ever so slightly into her shoulders.

"That. This treating me like I'm a ticking time bomb or some precious mirror a drop away from shattering."

"I would never treat you like--"

"A mirror? A tool? Some living portrait of Rose Quartz to consult when you're lonely? Poor Pearl. So very lonely." Shame swallowed Pearl whole as Lapis lashed out with all the calmness of the quiet before a storm, but as the words brewed in the hollow of her chest, she remembered that therein lied her courage alongside. Inhaling a steadying breath, Pearl hardened her quivering brow. 

"I never knew. Lapis, I swear. Had I just questioned Garnet . . . but I didn't. After the war, so many of us, so many of them . . . hardly anyone came out the same. I didn't release you, no. I used you, yes, and I am so sorry. More sorry than I know how to express because I **don't** know you, Lapis. And I didn't know you were trapped. You never spoke to me! But you spoke to Steven, which makes me wonder why you couldn't do the same with me?" Pearl's eyes and voice began to moisten with the onset of tears. She did her best to keep them at bay, not meaning to play on pity and not wanting to push aside Lapis' pain for her own, but it had to be said. "I kept you prisoner for years. You let me. Why did you let me do something like that?"

Lapis' irises shook with emotion, though whether from a nerve touched or a knot loosened, Pearl could not tell. Either way, Lapis regained her composure shortly after, latching back on to the anger that boiled ever present beneath her surface. "You forgot me."

Pearl looked positively bewildered. "Forgot you? Lapis, I don't know--"

"Forget it. That shouldn't be hard for you," Lapis shut Pearl down harshly, this time really hearing the cruelty in her tone. And not liking what she was hearing. Looking away, Lapis gripped at the crook of her arm, hugging her arm to her chest. Expelling the breath she had used to sting Pearl in, Lapis started afresh with a new one. "Look, I just want to do this for Steven. Could we just . . ." Lapis brought herself to look Pearl in the eye, "do this for Steven? Please?"

Pearl looked no more informed, but could come to a temporary peace with her ignorance. Since her rescue from Malachite, Lapis had never given Pearl the courtesy of a polite word. Something was changing, however slowly. "Is that what you want?"

"Yes." 

Pearl swallowed back the rest of her tears and nodded, smoothing out the wrinkles from the blue shirt she had previously clutched as a speaking crutch. "Wh-what do you think of Blue Ballerinas? As a team name, I mean? The alliteration is uhm, pleasing to the ear."

Lapis offered a ghost of a smile. "We'll pirouette to victory."


	2. Sore Losers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the games kick off, competitive natures take hold, turning fun into fury.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahaha, so remember when I said this was a two-parter? I lied! I really wanted to finish this tonight, but that's definitely not going to happen. But I have a good chunk of writing that definitely constitutes as its own chapter and I really wanna share it to keep the flame of this fic alive. I've appreciated all the views and comments so much! I hope I can wrap this up (for real this time) by next week. Until then, please enjoy chapter two!

With shirts drawn and team names decided, everyone conglomerated around Steven and his box of fun, awaiting further instruction to get them through yet another strange Earth custom.

"Oh, ballerinas! Wow, Pearl, did you hand-draw this? How did you get the proportions so exact without a stencil?" Connie raved as Pearl and Lapis donned their shirts, both trying and failing to hide their discomfort in the cheap, cotton cloth. Lapis tugged at the sleeves irritably, Pearl taking a moment from smiling at Connie's compliment to whisper something in Lapis' ear. Lapis' eyes brightened before she busied herself with rolling the intrusive shirt sleeves up past her shoulders, tucking them into the too-large pits of the shirt design.

"It's all scale and relativity," Pearl finally answered, very pleased with herself before Lapis chimed in, now bunching the long hem of her shirt at the small of her back before tying it in a knot, once again exposing her midriff. 

"She projected the silhouette and I traced the image." Pearl frowned and shot Lapis a look of aggravation, embarrassed to be discredited before her protégé. Lapis shrugged unapologetically.

"Yes, well, projection is a fine art in itself. It requires a photographic memory and impeccable recall," Pearl tried to recover, straightening her back and pointing a single finger in the air as if commanding the attention of an audience. The pointed finger curled in curdled surprise as a ball of water collided with her face, spilling upon impact to drench every inch of her front. She shivered from the sudden cold and shook what water she could from her hair, now clinging to the frame of her very disgruntled face like strings of limp spaghetti. Connie covered her mouth. Lapis wasn't nearly as considerate, grinning broadly as she watched Pearl preen in an attempt to restore her perception of aesthetic perfection.

"This may be a fun day after all," Lapis murmured sidelong to Connie before her eyes fell on Amethyst and Peridot, all suited up in t-shirts bearing nothing but poorly drawn, exaggerated pecs and abs. Pointing a finger, Lapis asked, "What are they supposed to be?"

Connie, just as baffled, shook her head. Steven knew right away, having marathoned all five of his movies with Amethyst in an effort to work in some new wrestling moves for the Purple Puma.

"The Implausible Bulk!" Dropping his voice to his best impression of a movie narrator's baritone, Steven recited by memory, "With washboard abs of steel, he'll clean this city one scum-rag at a time. He's not angry, he's **furious!** " Amethyst flexed and silently snarled, Peridot watching her a beat before attempting the same, looking considerably less vicious with her eyes swimming in confusion and her teeth bared. 

"Am I doing it right?" Peridot mumbled between clenched teeth to Amethyst, who turned and burst out laughing. 

"Maybe you be the brainy side of Bill Bana and leave the brawn to me," Amethyst suggested, reigning her laughter in with a swipe of the corner of her eye. Peridot pouted in perplexion, crossing her arms over her chest.

"These Earth references are growing tiresome. If I had my screen, perhaps I wouldn't be so clueless," Peridot muttered to herself.

"We'll watch the movies together, Peridot, how about that? It's not **your** screen, but it's almost better because it's bigger! Like Bill Bana!" Steven offered brightly, happy to find Peridot's frown dissolve in consideration.

"Yeah, okay . . . though how you could claim your picture box is a more sophistica--hey!" Dodging a soaring sharpie, Peridot retraced its trajectory back to a knelt Garnet, back turned to the group as she loomed over her t-shirt. "Is this a preemptive strike? Are we beginning?" Spending the contents of another sharpie in her furious but precise coloring, Garnet tossed it like the other over her shoulder. Peridot snatched it from the air before bringing it down to eye level for inspection. Finishing, Garnet rose and turned, holding her shirt out for Steven's approval. The likeness was uncanny, down to the bigness of Garnet's hair. The breeze practically gave Steven and Connie a head high as it billowed through the still-drying puddle of sharpie bleeding onto the back of the t-shirt.

"Team Garnet, baby," Garnet said with a confident grin, tearing the neck of the shirt wider with a controlled tug before slipping the ill-fitting garment over her head.

"Alright," Steven beamed at the semi-circle over the lip of a clip board, speaking as he wrote, "So we've got the pink lions . . . blue ballerinas . . . Is that green bulks or implausible bulks?" Steven looked up from his columns to Amethyst.

"Bulks. Green Bulks," Amethyst confirmed in her best James Bond impression. 

"Oohkay!" Steven scrawled the name down with a bite of his tongue. "And Team Garnet! Teams set!" Drawing his pencil from the last column to the first row, Steven announced, "First up, fifty yard dash! This one's easy," motioning for the group to follow, Steven walked over to the pre-measured dash tracks. "Okay, one of you will start, the other will stand at the end of the dash. When you reach the end, you tag them in and they run the way back. First to cross the line wins! Garnet, you can run both ways. Everybody clear?"

"Seems easy enough," Pearl nodded.

"If you weren't racing a speed demon," Amethyst scoffed, jostling Pearl's side with a jab of her elbow. Slinging her arm around Peridot's shoulder, Amethyst crowed, "We got this in the bag, Peri. Why don't you start us off? Purple Puma prefers to be the big finish." Pearl rolled her eyes to the heavens.

"You're not going to run in your flip flops, are you?" Connie asked, measuring her odds against the raring gems settling into positions with resignation. Steven glanced down at his feet, wiggling his toes in friendly greeting to himself. 

"Honestly, Amethyst is sorta right. I don't think the flip flops will make a difference. This one is theirs," Steven replied casually, watching Connie readjust once again to the idea of playing an already-lost game. Between Mrs. Maheswaren at home and Pearl during training sessions, Steven could understand the difficulty. This went against everything she was taught to strive for. "Don't worry. Between you and me, I think the egg relay is our time to shine. Everyone should win a blue ribbon if I planned this right. Of course, I've been wrong before." Steven shrugged his hands into the air. Before he could bring them back down, Connie's arms were around him in a quick hug.

"You're so thoughtful, Steven," she praised with a squeeze before letting him go, sprinting toward the opposite end of the track. With a wave, she called over her shoulder, "See you on the other side!" 

The first event went as predicted, Amethyst's spin dash making short work of the race. And the track. Patting sand out of his hair, Steven passed out the first wave of ribbons, pocketing the purple participation ribbons for he and Connie, then awarding third to first place. Stepping in front of the celebrating Bulk duo, Steven went the extra mile in bestowing Peridot her first honestly-won earth belonging, giving her the courtesy of a flourishing bow as he addressed her.

"And to the quickest of the land, I present thee, Peridot, the blue ribbon of haste." Utilizing his palm as a presenting pillow, Steven offered the ribbon to Peridot with his head still bowed impossibly low. Peridot found the act entirely bizarre and yet somehow . . . flattering. Taking the ribbon from Steven's hand, she tucked it into the collar of her suit, a hesitant, "Thank you, Steven," to follow.

"You're welcome," Steven smiled, turning to Amethyst with far less fanfare. It wasn't necessary. Amethyst accepted her ribbon and immediately flashed it to Pearl and Lapis, along with a smug grin. 

"Looks like blue is our color after all." Pearl frowned, folding her arms over her chest.

"It's one match, Amethyst."

"What's that? Is somebody **green** with jealousy?" Pearl could not fight the indignant sound that huffed through her nostrils. Closing her eyes and turning her entire body from Amethyst's gloating, she chose to expedite to Amethyst's certainly upcoming loss.

"What's next, Steven?"

"Oh, uh," Steven stalled as he consulted the clip board. "It looks like the three-legged race!" Steven turned to the demolished sand skids that were once his perfectly-etched tracks, face falling. "Did I say three-legged race?" Steven skipped his pencil past the event to the next. "I meant the hula hoop contest. Also I'm sitting this one out." Gathering the hula hoops, Steven walked them to each gem, explaining as he went. "The name of the game is Hula! Your objective? Hoop 'til you droop! If your hula hits the sands, you're canned! Last one standing wins!" As Steven handed the last hoop to Connie, he asked with trepid optimism, "Having fun?" Connie smiled, fingers brushing against Steven's as she accepted the hoop, privately delighted that they both blushed in synchronicity at the contact. 

"I'm having a blast." Connie glanced down the line of soon-to-be hula-hoopers acquainting themselves with the flimsy plastic rings. "Everyone else seems to be, too. Now go fix the track. I'll get us a ribbon one way or another," Connie encouraged with a wink.

\- - -

Ten minutes. Ten whole minutes since Steven had started them with a "Go!", and still the game remained in play, only two competitors still standing. Peridot had been the first to drop out, Pearl the second with Amethyst's hounding distracting her. The wet sand beneath Amethyst's feet, and only beneath Amethyst's feet, sank with a mysterious suddenness, throwing her groove off to make the third drop out. Lapis grew bored at the seven minute mark, willingly going still before stepping over her fallen hoop to sit nearby, but not without Pearl's vexed questioning in her ear. Which left Connie versus Garnet, the former keeping up with a look of determination, Garnet making the event seem as natural as breathing with the easy sway of her hips. Steven, who had time to etch an entire new track in the sands **and** to retrieve snacks from the beach house, returned to the sidelines with an impressed wonderment. Amethyst pilfered the drinks and chips bundled in his arms, throwing yet another dirty look at Lapis before eating her defeat, washing it down with a bit of salty and sweet.

"You are very good at this, Connie," Garnet complimented, turning her head to notice the beads of sweat breaking on Connie's brow. 

Connie smiled graciously, somewhat winded as she replied, "You too. Tell me, do I have a chance?" Garnet smiled. "And don't throw the game for me! I'll know if you do. If I'm going to win, I want it to be earned."

"In that case, no. But I can see the future, and if we keep going, everyone but Steven will leave us on this beach."

"I make it that long?" Connie asked in surprise, panting lightly, her steady gyrations beginning to hiccup here and there in her fatigue.

"If I weren't a gem, this win would be yours," Garnet confirmed with a nod. 

With a heavy sigh and a proud smile, Connie looked to Steven. "This was Garnet's event, wasn't it?"

Steven nodded reluctantly, a sadness in his voice as he regretfully informed, "Garnet's hips don't lie . . ." 

Catching the hoop mid-spin rather than let it fall to the ground gracelessly, Connie eliminated herself from the game, bringing the hoop above her head to place it in the pile with the others. Garnet did the same seconds after, placing a bracing palm at Connie's back to help her restore her balance in her transition from waist-wiggle to walk. Steven quickly offered Connie one of the few juice boxes Amethyst had yet to lay claim to, even stabbing the straw through the aluminum seal before handing it over.

"You were amazing!" Steven said in astonishment, promptly awarding Connie both second place ribbons, taking it upon himself to pin them to her shirt commendation-style.

Connie took a long sip of her refreshment, then giggled. "I was, wasn't I?" 

\- - -

The three-legged race wasn't nearly as taxing or nearly as long, though if you asked Amethyst and Peridot, they would tell a different story. One mostly construed of groans and bickering, with the occasional scream of futility.

"Walk much, Peridot?" Amethyst sneered as she fumbled with the too-tight knot keeping their ankles bound together, having just barely stumbled over the finish line. A finish line, to Amethyst's chagrin, that Pearl and Lapis cleared several minutes ago, taking each step as if in a dance. Quite literally. Pearl had counted out every step for them to follow, which is why Amethyst could not fathom how she and Peridot were **still** in this predicament when Amethyst finally conceded in adopting the winning method. "All you had to do was follow my lead!"

"Your count is more erratic than Earth weather! Who would employ a 5/4 for a left-right step? And maybe if you had stuck to a measure, I could have even adjusted to that, but no!"

"Ugh, what are you even **saying**? Could you cut the technobabble for two seconds, twerp?"

"I don't know, can you cut this clodding rope?" Peridot spat back, clawing her hands down across her visor and mouth irately.

"Cut the clodding rope . . ." Amethyst repeated lowly through clenched teeth before engaging them in chewing through the fibrous binding, gnawing with the ferocity of a famished hound. The second they felt the rope snap, Amethyst and Peridot shot from one another like matching poles of a magnet. Unfortunately for everyone present, this just meant they argued louder to compensate for the distance.

"No wonder you wore limb enhancements! You formed with two left feet!"

"At least I formed with a fully-logical brain!" Amethyst's eyes glinted dangerously, her fists balling before her entire body enveloped in purple-white light. Growing twice her size, the amorphous light began to take a familiar shape, Purple Puma making her debut with a pound of her fist in her palm.

"You wanna go, tater tot?" Amethyst growled, her shirt torn to shreds and hanging limply off her broad chest as she flexed menacingly.

"That's enough!" Garnet commanded, she and Pearl leaping between Amethyst and Peridot to form a body shield. Poking her head from behind Garnet's thigh, Peridot blew a raspberry. Garnet promptly picked her up by the scruff of her suit and let her dangle in the air.

"You lost. Get over it. Both of you." Amethyst's chest rose and fell in half a dozen deep breaths, her fists never unclenching even as she shifted back into her normal form. 

"I want a different teammate."

"Too bad. You two are stuck together." Garnet tossed Peridot in Amethyst's direction, where she landed with a skid upon her face. Pushing herself out of the sands, Peridot looked up to Amethyst, a woundedness in her eyes before she masked it with a scowl. Amethyst, still clenching her jaw, unclenched her fist, reluctantly offering a hand to Peridot without looking at her. Peridot accepted it and pulled herself back up, letting go of Amethyst's hand the moment it was no longer of assistance. Dusting herself off, Peridot looked to Steven.

"Are we done yet?"

"Now you're talkin' my language," Amethyst seconded, still too angry to look at any one person directly. Steven swallowed, the clip board in his hand briefly trembling before he steadied himself.

"U-uhh . . . we still have two events left, but if no one's having fun . . ." 

"Don't let them spoil it, Steven," Lapis said kindly as she approached him, taking the clip board from his hands to place aside, removing any barrier between them as she lifted his chin with the gentle bracing of her finger. "It's a temper tantrum. Your friends are a bit competitive, that's all." Pearl stepped forward to admit her behavior.

"It's true, I haven't been very sportsmanlike. You know how Amethyst and I can get and I don't say that as an excuse, but as a fact we should have realized. Amethyst and I have known each other for centuries. Our squabbles prove to be no more permanent than the ripples of a pebble tossed into a pond. But this isn't a behavior we should be exhibiting -- no, promoting -- around guests." Pearl looked to Connie and bowed her head in shame. "I am deeply sorry for any upset I may have instigated."

Amethyst's tense posture slowly eased with every word Pearl spoke, the tail end of her apology finding Amethyst looking regretful and small. With head hung also, Amethyst rejoined the small group, squaring herself before Steven and Connie before looking up.

"I reacted really poorly." Amethyst turned around to face Peridot. "Especially towards you. That wasn't fair. I'm . . . sorry, alright?"

Peridot fingered the blue ribbon still poking from the collar of her suit nervously, taking a beat to sift through her rattled thoughts. The bad seemed like ear-splitting echoes, but the good? They felt tangible, like the cradling curve of an escape pod that she could crawl into and use to blast away from the explosions around her. She chose the good, leaving the bad behind her. 

"I'm sss-- . . . ssooo-- . . . I'm sorrrrry too," Peridot managed without the use of her recorder.

"Hug it out?" Steven suggested, stepping past Pearl and Lapis to extend a hand to Peridot. She came to him slowly, watching Amethyst with a twinge of apprehension as she fell side to side with her. Amethyst noted the behavior with remorse, taking the opportunity to apologize once more, now face to face.

"Seriously, that wasn't cool of me. I don't know how it is on Homeworld, but we don't intimidate our friends here on Earth. That's not okay."

"Well . . . so long as we're friends, I've learned something else on this water rock. Mistakes only remain mistakes if you never recognize them for what they were. I think we were both more intelligent than that today." The invisible weight pulling down on Amethyst's shoulders seemed to lighten up with the rest of her visage.

"Awwww, you guuuuyyysss!" Steven simpered, eyes swimming with joyous tears. Before Amethyst or Peridot could rightly react, Steven's arms were strewn about the both of them, pulling them in tight. Connie joined in from behind Steven, her longer arms barely able to graze Peridot and Amethyst's shoulders. Pearl looked over the hugging heap with a warm smile, though appeared to have no intention of suffocating the small group further until the sweep of Garnet's arm tousled Lapis into Pearl, and the three of them into the hug of seven.


	3. Blindsided

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group's team-building is put to the test when three unwelcome visitors crash the games.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise, had I known this story would run so long, I would have told you up front. But uh, it looks like I'm stretching this to four chapters. This chapter would be disproportionately long otherwise. Plus this buys me some time to finish up while letting you all read what I've been up to. I'm trying desperately to wrap this up before November 10th, when I will suddenly disappear from this world and into the Fallout 4 Wasteland, so the conclusion shouldn't be that far off. 
> 
> Also, I've upped the rating from general to teen just to be safe. Combat and all. Without further ado:

"This one gets a bit trickier," Steven cautioned as he handed each team a single bandanna, except for Garnet who, in addition to being one person, Steven was pretty sure could navigate the obstacle course with or without eyesight thanks to Sapphire's future vision. She lounged in a nearby lawn chair, an honorary judge's badge pinned up in her hair, which in actuality was merely a gold-painted plastic Sheriff's badge. "One of you will be blindfolded. The other will direct the blindfolded, using only words, through the obstacles in your way. The person to reach the other side first with the least amount of disturbed obstacles wins!"

"Aww, what?" Amethyst whined, crossing her arms over her chest. "But are they _really_ obstacles if you can just crush 'em on your way to victory?"

"Well yeah," Steven insisted simply. Amethyst passed the bandanna over to Peridot post-haste.

"The last time I wore one of these, Steven tricked me into hitting a donkey full of candy across the ocean. I'm not ready to relive that loss just yet." Amethyst sniffed, whispering tenderly, "They were chocolates, too." Peridot took the bandanna halfheartedly, a quizzical quirk in her brow at Amethyst's peculiar attachment to these "chocolates" and why they would be desirable half-digested from the gut of a pack animal.

"You'll give me better direction than last time?" Peridot asked warily.

"Ehh," and a shrug was all Amethyst could guarantee.

"I'm not wearing that," Lapis asserted, looking up from the bandanna in Pearl's hand to the sea dismissively.

"Oh,” Pearl’s palm closed over the fabric, “well, I certainly wouldn't ask you to if it makes you uncomfortable."

"It does."

Pearl's pacifying smile wavered. It was a dangerously thin line she had treaded this entire afternoon, walking on eggshells and simultaneously trying to make it look as if she were ambling down a beaten path; as to not remind the eggshells of their delicacy. But the truth was, Lapis was far from stable, whether she could hold herself together or not. Malachite had stayed together for months, and from the head-clutching screams alone that Lapis let out when she thought no one was watching, Pearl could tell every second of maintaining she and Jasper’s prison had taken its toll on her. It felt almost her duty to take the lashings of Lapis' unforgiving tongue, being her favored target for reasons unbeknownst to her, but every single sting pierced deeper than the last, leaving Lapis no more satisfied than the letting of the first cruel quip. This was helping no one. All Lapis knew now were vicious cycles. Pearl just wished she knew how to break the wheel without breaking the tenuous trust between them. Somehow, she mustered her veil of a smile once more.

Stepping up to the obstacle course, Pearl blanketed the bandanna over her eyes, keeping the material taut with a light tug as she pulled her fingers along the cloth back to the ends. Tying a secure but simple knot, Pearl let her hands fall to her sides, rotating her wrists as she acclimated to her loss of sight with perked ears and sensitized skin. She felt the air shift as Lapis walked past her; In the darkness of her blindfold, it was Malachite's twisted sneer, not Lapis' indifferent expression, that she pictured positioning herself at the sidelines. Pearl shuddered at the frightening flash, banishing the Freudian slip from her consciousness with a tight squeeze of her eyes, knowing full well that Malachite could not possibly be among them. A trick of the mind. The touch of Lapis' fingertips against Pearl's upper arm was warm against skin she hadn't realized had run cold in fear. She jumped despite herself.

"You see her too . . ." Lapis murmured mournfully, stirring civil unrest in Pearl's chest as sadness and hope rose together at the break in Lapis' hard tone. Pearl seized the foot in the door, appropriating her hope into attentiveness.

"She's not you. You're not her," Pearl assured. Lapis' noncommittal touch anchored itself, fingers wrapping around Pearl's arm squeezing tight but not constrictively. Pearl could feel the tremors of Lapis' storming interior vibrate in her palm against her.

"How do you know?" Lapis' voice was low, skirting threatening, but beneath that was an undercurrent of desperation. Pearl clasped the back of Lapis' hand, squeezing comfortingly. 

"You are Lapis Lazuli. And you are no one's prisoner." Lapis' fingernails bit into Pearl's skin as she inhaled shakily, immediately letting up the second she heard Pearl's nearly inaudible hiss of pain. 

"I'm sorry!" Lapis exhaled in a hushed whisper, letting go of Pearl and pulling from her entirely. Pearl moved to reach for her, a hand shooting up to tug the blindfold from her eyes before Steven's voice closed the door on whatever had just taken place. Lapis' feet padded out of reach back to the sidelines in a hurry, leaving Pearl to return to her standby.

"Is everyone ready?"

"Ready!"

"Ready!"

"Ready." 

\- - -

Pearl counted the event a success, even with only third place to show for it. Lapis had gotten her through the obstacles mostly unscathed, fighting the wavering emotions in the back of her throat to give sincere, if not distractedly vague directions. Pearl doubted this would have been the case had they not begun to open the dialogue Pearl had to admit had been distracting her as well. 

"Steven, I'm not at all surprised you and Connie took this one! It was a wise move making Connie your navigator," Pearl praised, accepting the third place ribbons on she and Lapis' behalf, noticing with a swell of pride that Steven had pinned his first blue ribbon atop the others on his shirt.

"It just made sense," Steven shrugged modestly, "Connie's a bit better with words like you are." Pearl brightened at the compliment, kneeling before Steven as she took it upon herself to straighten his ribbons.

"Knowing the strengths of your individual teammates is the mark of a wise leader. Rose always let us shine, too." Steven's expression matured just the slightest at the mention of his mother, his smile still sweet but wistful now. Pearl gathered him in her arms and hugged him tight, heart swelling as she felt his arms wrap around her in turn, no words exchanged. She needed this, and like Rose used to, he somehow just knew. "I'm so proud of you, Steven. I don't think I say it enough."

"You say it plenty," Steven reassured with a light laugh as Pearl drew back to look at him, doing her best to keep back the sudden well of emotion threatening to leak from her eyes. Giving his ribbons one final smoothing, she gently propelled him on his way and stood, scanning the sands for Lapis.

"It looks like it's anyone's game," Pearl opened casually, coming up from behind Lapis to stand beside her. Lapis remained silent for so long that Pearl nearly gave up on a dialogue, beginning to turn and remove herself from Lapis' presence until,

"Just one more event, right?"

"That's right," Pearl fell back into place, looking at Lapis before following her lead. This was an eyes-forward conversation. But why did it have to be toward the sea?

"Do you worry she'll come back?" Pearl asked after another stretch of silence, catching herself trying to speak toward Lapis before righting her mistake. The ocean was calm, the sun just beginning to set in the horizon, casting oranges and pinks across the surface of gently rolling waves. By all accounts, it was a gorgeous portrait, but the way Lapis watched it, still as a gargoyle on vigil, even Pearl began to believe that something menacing remained below.

"I know. It's stupid," Lapis muttered, beratement in her tone not for Pearl, but for herself. Lapis' eyes fell down to the sand at her feet. "Malachite can't exist without me, but I still expect to see her every time I look out at this beach. I can still smell the burning of the ship's rubble, still feel Jasper's clutch on my arm . . ." Lapis gingerly touched her upper arm, coincidentally the same area where Lapis had latched onto Pearl. The parallel sent chills down Lapis' spine and suddenly she was crying, not a drizzle but a downpour, silent as it was steady. "I thought the mirror was the worst thing that could happen to me, but I was wrong. I could escape the mirror. I don't know . . . I don't know if I can escape this. I did this. To us. To me. Is . . . is this who I am? Did I ever _really_ know who I was before?"

Pearl's heart broke for Lapis with every sentence, her mind racing in search of the words that would stitch together Lapis' unraveling identity, only to realize she hadn't the needle or thread to do so. Still, she scoured anyway, through every conversation with Rose, with Amethyst, with herself, hoping hand-me-down advice would be enough of a patch to buy them time. That is, until a bubbling in the waters just a few dozen yards off-shore caught her eye. She watched in suspended horror as the bubbling grew more frenzied, Malachite's anguished cries to the bottom of the ocean echoing in her ears before the surface broke, three four-legged beings soaring twenty feet into the air. They were not of Earth, simultaneously shark-like and feline-esque with massive, razor-lined maws and finned tails. 

Lapis' eyes snapped up from the sands, hardly getting a look at the smooth-skinned creatures before they crashed back into the water, their dorsals carving rapidly-unzipping V's in the ocean's surface as they approached at impressive speed.

"Garnet! Amethyst!" Pearl rose the alarm, calling over her shoulder as she materialized her spear, taking a step forward to put herself in front of Lapis. Lapis, however, had other plans, splitting the ocean in two to reveal their aquatic aggressors, who fumbled only a moment before adapting to the soggy sand beneath their feet.

"What are _those_?" Amethyst marveled, impending doom taking a backseat to curiosity momentarily until the pack leader of the three hocked up a neon orange liquid with near-perfect aim, hitting Amethyst's drawn whip and barely missing her. It sizzled as it splashed against the sands, eating the end of Amethyst's whip entirely. She let go of it with a start, quickly summoning two more in its place as she leapt away from the steam rising up. "WHOA! Lapis! Drown 'em! Drown 'em!"

Lapis wasted no time, bringing both towering ocean walls crashing down across the sea bed, but everyone knew this would only buy them time. Running ahead to meet their enemy the second they emerged on shore, Garnet brandished her gauntlets.

"Their gems are on their backs. Whatever you do, try to get behind them!" was the only advice Garnet could manage to shout before two of the tenacious trio emerged from the sea foam, bounding like cheetahs at breakneck speed. Garnet locked her sights on one of them, meeting its charge before colliding with it head on, catching its gnashing jaws in both of her hands, stopping it dead in its tracks. A gurgling came from its throat as it worked up another acid ball and just as it spit, Garnet released the beast and shielded herself with spread palms. The acid quickly ate away at her gauntlets, forcing Garnet to dematerialize them and leap backward in temporary retreat. A giant hand of water bought Garnet a few second's time as it snared the beast pressing on in pursuit, dragging it back to the ocean's edge. Meanwhile, Pearl taunted and evaded the second gem beast, not yet finding an opening in which to strike or slow it down. 

"Steven! Grab Connie and bubble up! This fight's too dangerous for the two of you!" Garnet instructed, balling her fists as a fresh pair of gauntlets took their place.

"I want to help!" Steven insisted, completely unaware of the purple goop flying directly towards him. Both Peridot and Amethyst leapt to intercept it, colliding into one another mid-air just as the goop hit the both of them. They thudded to the ground, Amethyst groaning before triggering into panic mode, remembering what had happened to her whip.

"Ohmanohmanohman! Oh . . . man?" There was no sizzling. There wasn't even pain. Amethyst peeked through her fingers down to her leg, where Peridot prodded at the thick, purple substance attaching them both, pulling back the second the goop threatened to suck her fingers into the trapping tangle.

"It's some sort of bonding agent!" Peridot concluded, trying to wrench her leg free to no avail.

"STEVEN!" Garnet shouted.

Rushing to Connie's side, Steven grabbed her hand and formed his bubble, rolling with her assistance some distance from the main squabble.

"This is _not_ good!" Connie stressed, able to take in the scene with more clarity now that she was no longer amidst the chaos. Amethyst and Peridot held their ground, Amethyst's whips keeping their aggressor at bay as they tried and tried again to gain their footing with their conjoined goop leg between them. Garnet and Pearl stepped a deadly dance with their own opponents, Lapis undermining any detrimental advantage the beasts would gain with an interrupting blast of water, but none of her attacks proved lethal. These creatures were as comfortable at sea as they were at land, able to withstand tremendous force as they continued to prove, rubbery skin deflecting Garnet's blows like ping-pong balls. "If the gems have any hope of poofing them, they need decoys. Steven, can't Lapis form water clones?"

Steven cupped his hands over his mouth, calling out as loud as he could muster, "Lapis! We could really use your water clones!" With an arsenal of eight orbs of water swirling about her, Lapis let loose one to intercept the path of an acidic spit, the hissing mixture falling short of its intended target as acid and water cancelled each other out. Lapis shouted back at Steven, unable to afford the convenience of turning toward him.

"I can't!"

"Why?"

"Steven, I-- They can't differentiate friend from enemy. There's no way I could control them. Not all of them at once!" A concentrated volley launched toward Lapis from a beastie bobbing in the sea, Lapis managing to deflect all but one that she missed in the glint of the dying sun. It collided with her face, spreading over the span of her eyes, effectively blinding her entirely. Instinctively, she reached to wipe the tacky substance from her face, only managing to get her hand stuck in the sticky snare.

"Lapis!" Steven's alarmed shout alerted Pearl, who, in her attempt to learn the beasts' patterns, hadn't been able to afford concentration towards much else. Seeing Lapis nearly helpless, Pearl took a gamble and stood still, closing her eyes and focusing her energy just long enough to holo-clone herself, making a set of five before scattering them in all directions. She narrowly dodged the bounding leap of the beast out for her life with a tuck-and-roll. Traversing to Lapis' side as quickly as she could, holo-clones buying her some breathing room, Pearl took Lapis' hand.

"I'm right beside you. I'll be your eyes, if you trust me."

"Pearl--"

"Water wall, on your left!" Pearl interrupted, Lapis springing up the aegis almost instantaneously, dissolving the acid arcing straight for them. "I'm not leaving you." Lapis nodded once, squeezing Pearl's hand before letting go, freeing her to wield her spear once more.

"AAAAUUUUUGH!" Amethyst bellowed, every bit of her in the form of Purple Puma . . . except her goopified leg, now significantly disproportioned. Shifting back into her natural form, Amethyst drew yet another set of whips, having given Peridot her previous two to aid in the fight. With four whips flailing desperately, nothing dared get close to them, but it did little to keep the long-range spitballs from raining in over their heads. Another purple mass plopped between Amethyst and Peridot, this time gluing their arms together, forcing them inward toward one another and significantly minimizing their joint range of vision.

Stunned for how to proceed, Amethyst took in what little sights she could. Garnet broke in and out of the ocean, having drawn one of the corrupted creatures into the sea for battle. She seemed to fair evenly, but the beast was just as mobile in water as it was land. At least for the time being, its projectiles fell harmlessly into the waves. Pearl and Lapis were closer in, Pearl fighting in circles around Lapis, doing her best to keep the beast from advancing inward. Her holo-clones had thinned down to two and while Lapis seemed to hold her own in defense, there was little direction Pearl could give to keep her on the offense with how swiftly and erratically the monsters moved. As far as Amethyst could see, this was a losing battle unless something changed. Fast.

Struck with an idea, Amethyst shook Peridot's shoulder, bringing her out of her fearful, spiraling muttering. "Hey, hey, Peri, stay with me. You know how to fuse, right? I mean, you've done it before?"

Peridot looked mildly offended, stalling in her answer. "Of course I know the technicalities of fusion. It's a common war-time practice, requiring synchronization of will and motion--"

"Yeah yeah, but _you've_ done it before, right?" Amethyst hurried Peridot along, heart skipping at the sight of a strike that would have been lethal had Pearl not narrowly dodged it. " _Right_ , Peridot?!"

Peridot grimaced. "Er. My prime directive has never been to engage in combat . . . I uh, no?" Amethyst looked mortified, but quickly dashed the wide-eyed, slack-jaw expression from her face, replacing it with a look of determination as another holo-Pearl was downed in the distance.

"Peridot, listen. We've _got_ to fuse."

"What!?"

"I wouldn't ask you otherwise, but we _don't have a choice_. Except you do, because--because that's how it works, you get me? I won't make you--"

"But how? I thought . . . isn't there dancing involved?" Amethyst perked, surprised to find Peridot even considering the notion.

"It helps, but I know another way."


	4. Zircon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the fight grows dire, Amethyst and Peridot have to pull together to save the day. Quite literally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it! The finale. No, really! Read for yourself!

"Lapis, duck down!" Pearl shouted, aiming her spear where she projected the monster would land -- that is, if it didn't tackle Lapis along with it. Lapis dodged it by a hair's breadth, shielding the top of her head with the wrap of her arm as she dropped down to her knees. Before the beast could round on Lapis, Pearl aimed her spear for its gem and threw it with all her might. The tip of the spear cracked against the intended target, shattering upon impact while only splitting fissures across the stone. The beast yelped in pain, thrashing in a disoriented frenzy as its physical form began to morph and distort with no rhyme or reason. It was injured, but if anything, it was only more dangerous than before, its thundering, razor-edged paws bombarding the sands all around Lapis. There was no way to walk Lapis out of this; any second now those thrashing claws would inadvertently shred her into ribbons.

"Pearl! What do I do now?" Lapis attempted to shout above the yowling, the ground beneath her shaking as sand flew in on her from all directions. She curled into herself, making herself as small as possible, certain that if she tried to fly away, she'd be snatched from the air. "Pearl!" And that's when it hit her. Something anyway, all limbs and blunt force launching her back across the sands for yards until she and the weight atop her skidded to a stop. Before Lapis could squirm from beneath her sailing assailant, they were gone from her, a winded grunt and the sound of something materializing a precursor to yet another ear-splitting yowl before it abruptly went silent.

Two gems hit the sand, one right after the other, a small 'pap-pap' patter the only indication to Lapis that ten feet before her laid the felled beast and her protector. Lapis pushed her bruised body from out of the sand, listening for Pearl, for the beast, for anything. "Pearl! Don't leave me in the dark! Not again!"

Connie gasped aloud, having witnessed the entirety of Pearl's last stand. Without hesitance, Pearl had driven the length of her spear directly into the gaping throat of the beast just as it was working up another acid spit. Pearl's spear struck true, piercing the dorsal gem of the beast from the inside, but at a grave cost; the acid dripping from the beast's throat ate holes through Pearl's arm and shoulder, both of which were practically submerged in its gullet to achieve the devastating reach. The acid trickled from her limbs down her torso, leaving instant runs through her clothes with a sickening sizzle. Gritting her teeth to prevent from crying out, Pearl stayed corporeal until the very moment the beast retreated back into its gem. Knowing she had done everything in her power to assure Lapis' safety, Pearl accepted her defeat, withdrawing within her gem without a sound.

"Steven!" Connie exclaimed.

"Connie, it's okay! P-Pearl's--she's not--" Steven's voice shook despite his intention to console Connie.

"I know. She told me this could happen. Steven, we _have_ to do something." Recognizing the dogged determination in Connie's eyes, Steven donned the same and nodded his agreement.

"You get Pearl. I'll shield Lapis."

"On it," Connie confirmed, the toes of her shoes digging into the dirt to launch her forward at the drop of the barrier. The second Steven's bubble went down, the both of them sprinted full-speed toward the advance of the second beast, who sniffed at the sand in a trail that would lead it directly to Lapis. 

The rapid footfall alerted the beast to their approach, its head shooting up and sights zeroing in on Connie, who outran Steven by a couple of yards. It braced its ground and rumbled a throaty growl before pouncing forward. Connie folded back into a slide, limboing beneath the creature's underbelly as it barely missed her. Righting herself back up, Connie snatched Pearl's gem from the sands and clutched it to her midriff, rounding back to see Steven pelting the monster with the contents of an egg carton balanced in the crook of his arm.

"She's **not** the droid you're looking for!" Steven hollered, landing an egg directly between the beast's wide-spread eyes. It pawed the yolk away in a fluster before growing enraged, switching its focus from Connie to Steven, who stood protectively over Lapis' fetal curl.

"Steven!" Lapis brought her face from her knees, reaching out to the sound of his voice. She grasped at the first graze of cloth against her fingertips, pulling him back a few stumbling steps. "Steven, what's happening?"

"Oh, uh, right now? We're being charged at by one of the sharkats." Even through the goop, Lapis' expression of immediate alarm read through her animated reaction. She scrambled to her feet, still clinging to Steven.

 _"And what are we doing about it?"_ Lapis' stressed with a panicked strain in her tone.

"Waiting fooooor . . ." Steven drew out, his eyes not on the monster quickly closing the distance between them but on Connie, who ran to meet them. "CONNIE!" The second he felt Connie grasp his shoulder, Steven deployed his bubble once more, enveloping the three of them and Pearl's gem. And not a second too late. The monster collided head on with the rose-tinted barrier, knocking both parties back from the sheer force. Steven, Lapis and Connie tossed together like clothes in a tumbler until their protective orb came to a rolling stop. 

"Drop your visor."

"What?"

"Just drop your visor. I can't get to your gem otherwise."

"Get to my-- **Excuse me?!** What is this alternate method of fusion you're speaking of? I thought you were against Homeworld practices." Amethyst blanched at the reminder of the body-less limbs they had encountered beneath the Kindergarten, immediately wanting a reprieve from the memory in light of what they were preparing to do.

"Peri, listen, if we can't dance then we need to link and that means making contact with the other's gem." Amethyst explained, begrudging every awkward second with a sidelong pout and a hint of embarrassed blush crowning her cheeks. Peridot stared on, processing Amethyst's words before her visor flickered out of existence. Dropping the whip hanging limply from her hand, Peridot rose her hand to hover over Amethyst's gem, staring with a vexed blush at Amethyst's chest.

"Yeah, go on, just don't get fresh," Amethyst muttered, her chest rising a skip at the colder-than-anticipated press of Peridot's palm. Peridot glanced down between them, noticing both of Amethyst's hands were stuck in the goop binding them. 

"Amethyst, how are you--"

"Okay, listen, don't overthink this, okay? You're gonna want a manual, but fusion's all about what's inside you. Don't gunk it up with procedure. Just think about what you wanna be, and don't. break. the link. Now lean in a little, wouldya?"

Pressing her palm that much more secure against Amethyst's gem, Peridot complied, cheeks tinting emerald as Amethyst leaned in the same as she. She squeezed her eyes shut for half a second, processing an oncoming surge of . . . nerves? Rapid palpitations? A spontaneous neurological misfiring? Before Peridot could decide, a bright warmth began emitting from her gem, coaxing her eyes open to the sight of Amethyst's lips pressed firm upon her forehead.

Everything to follow happened so fast. An immense white light engulfed the both of them, at least, initially, until Peridot realized that _she_ was the bright light. But no, that statement was not accurate either. She was, for a single moment, her own gem, her own memories scattering about like frantic energy searching for a vessel. And someone else was there too, Amethyst, with her own memories and feelings colliding at impossible speeds with Peridot's own. As soon as she realized the light was them, she was wrong again, Peridot's consciousness reaching past any state of existence known to her prior. And then the light was Zircon, expanding out in height and girth to claim the space Zircon demanded she was worth.

As Zircon shed her light cocoon, her eager eyes took in every inch of herself that she could see, presenting her arms before her first. All four of them. Two pair, one set bare with lavender skin, the other armored in the sleekest, strongest alloids known to Homeworld -- the same materials Peridot's limb enhancers had been made of, down to the individually independent fingers. Hit with a sudden self-aware knowledge, Zircon commanded one of the fingers to break from the others, floating it up and away from her until it was level with her face, a good five feet away. The tip of the finger opened to reveal an optics lens, which drew in and out of focus before blinking green. With her other armored hand, Zircon formed a holo-screen with the frame of her fingers, which flickered blank lines of static before syncing with the feed of Zircon's camera finger, showing Zircon to herself from head to toe. She was tall. Very tall. Opal tall, though thicker. Her breastplate, pauldrons, greaves and boots, all a deep emerald, matched the make of her armored arms, lightweight and glossy. Her hair was a wild statement of individuality, Peridot's pointed crown prevalent in the upward swoop of her bangs, the rest of her mint-tinted mane loose and magnificent ala Amethyst. Covering her eyes -- two, she could tell by the way it felt when she blinked -- was an eye band visor, feeding her statistics in her field of vision that she felt was gibberish before realizing she understood every blip, percentage and abbreviation if she simply willed to understand them. Her gems, both of them, remained exposed, but Zircon felt anything but.

"Steven! The acid! It's eating through!" Connie shouted, side-stepping a drop before pointing up at the gaping maw of the beast now gnawing at their defenses. Its sharp teeth slid off the curves of the bubble, but its acidic saliva steadily wore away at the only thing preventing them from becoming sharkat chum. Steven mustered his focus, summoning his shield while maintaining the bubble, raising it above their heads like an umbrella. The acid drips rolled off the convex barrier, but not without leaving grooves that only deepened with each repeated streaking.

"I'm running out of ideas. . ." Steven panted, the strain of maintaining both defenses under active siege exhausting him more than he was willing to let on. Connie raised a hand up to help him brace the weight of his shield, still keeping Pearl as close as possible. "Lapis, if the bubble falls . . ."

"I can carry you! I can carry both of you!"

"Just Connie. It'll go after all of us if we're together." Connie snapped her vision from their impending doom to stare hard at Steven.

"Steven, no!"

"I second that, little man," Zircon's authoritative voice boomed over a static crack in the air as Zircon's electrically-charged whip lashed out and wound itself around the ankles of their attacker. The beast released the bubble in the beginning of a protesting yowl before the electrical current leapt from whip to water-slicked flesh, stunning and searing the corrupted gem simultaneously. While it still spasmed, Zircon aimed a finger at its gem, held her breath and let loose a single laser shot. It hit with dead-on accuracy and restrained force, causing the beast to dematerialize back into its uncracked, if not somewhat singed, gem. Raising the firing finger to her lips, Zircon blew away an imaginary trail of smoke before making a holstering motion with her hand toward her hip.

Steven dropped the bubble, but not his gaze of wonderment up at Zircon as his shield dematerialized as well. 

"Who is that?" Lapis asked warily, still clutching at and huddled to Steven's backside, unsure whether they were safer or sorrier for their new company.

"It's . . . It's . . ." Connie began to answer, before realizing she hadn't the foggiest. Leaning in to Steven's side, Connie asked, "who is she?"

"Zircon," Zircon answered, smiling down at them before a disturbance in the ocean brought her gaze beyond them. Her altered vision scanned beneath the surface of the ocean, picking up temperature spikes incongruent with the ocean temperature. They tangled about one another until one was slain, its heat signature blipping out entirely. To the eyes of the others, Garnet rose from the ocean surface, wading slowly with the tide toward the shore, a bubbled gem balanced in the brace of her palms.

"The danger has passed . . ." Zircon murmured to herself, accounting for all three of their assailants as Garnet sent the first back to the temple with a tap. Seeing this, Steven quickly moved to gather and teleport the other two, leaving Lapis to hug at herself in the absence of an anchor. "One more thing." Kneeling to one knee before Lapis, Zircon stated calmly, "Lapis, don't move."

With little other choice, Lapis stiffened stark still, clutching at her arm tighter in apprehensive anticipation. Zircon pointed her finger once more, concentrated, then shot a considerably lower-powered steady beam at the purple goop blinding Lapis. The blinding goop hardened beneath the beam before beginning to crack. Zircon cut the beam off just as Lapis broke her bound hand free, raising the other to claw at the substance she could feel giving away. Flaking every last bit from her eyes, Lapis beheld the last vision of Zircon before Zircon phased into white light, and then into Amethyst and Peridot separately.

"You . . . you two saved us. Together. As a fusion," Lapis could hardly believe her own words. Garnet could hardly believe her eyes, scooping Amethyst and Peridot up to hug them to her chest.

"You saved them! Peridot, Amethyst, thank you!" Releasing them both back to their own feet, Garnet knelt to Peridot's level, addressing her specifically. "You were a true crystal gem today."

"Thanks?" Peridot accepted the praise awkwardly, still blushing from the elation of existing as Zircon. 

"Your visor, what happened to it?" Garnet noticed, raising her own sunglasses up to peer curiously. Peridot shrugged and squirmed anxiously, covering her gem with her hand. 

"I-I guess I don't need it anymore! Yeesh! What's with the third degree?"

"She learned that from me," Amethyst said smugly, slinging an arm around Peridot's shoulders, watching Connie and Steven as they joined the group in their huddle. Amethyst's pleased expression fell immediately as she remembered the peril Pearl had been in, Pearl's absence now sorely apparent.

"Where's Pearl?" Lapis and Amethyst said in urgent unison, briefly looking at one another before Connie stepped into the middle of the group, unfurling her hand from her stomach to reveal Pearl's gem nestled in her palm. Amethyst lurched forward to examine Pearl's gem closer for lasting damage. Lapis merely paled and swallowed, eyes fixed on Pearl's dormant existence. 

"She was brave . . . everything she's taught me, I saw it all today, not just in practice, but in execution," Connie said with reverence, looking down at Pearl's gem before looking to Garnet, considering her the authority on the matter. "When will she be back?"

"When she's ready," Garnet said with a gentle simplicity. Connie nodded with a small frown, looking all around at the scuffed and littered beach, goop and steaming sand as plentiful as the skids and indentions left behind from the near-death experience. 

_We Maheswaran are all about safety._

"Oh man! It's really late!" Connie snapped to to the darkened sky, fumbling in her pockets for her phone. She came up empty-handed. "I must have left my phone in the beach house! I bet there's twenty missed calls already. Ooooh, am I in for it . . ." Connie turned to Steven, passing Pearl into his care before sprinting toward the temple. Steven appeared to want to follow, grounded only by the responsibility passed to him, causing Lapis to offer in the first place.

"I'll take her." Lapis outstretched her arm, Amethyst immediately inserting herself between Lapis and Steven, leaning in for Steven's ears only.

"Maybe Garnet's the better idea?" Amethyst murmured through closed teeth, Lapis hearing her anyway and frowning. Steven looked to Garnet, who considered Lapis stoically for a beat before removing Amethyst from between them.

"I see no problem with that." 

With Garnet's go-ahead, Steven placed Pearl in Lapis' waiting hand, explaining, "I just need to make sure the Maheswaran's don't blame Connie! It was my big idea. I'll be back," in a hurry before running to catch up with Connie.

Left alone, Garnet, Amethyst, Peridot and Lapis looked between one another, all equally relieved but equally drained from the fight. They fell into an unspoken silence, processing Zircon, the oddly coordinated attack, the close calls -- Pearl's especially -- until finally they all began to migrate toward the temple as a group. Peridot insisted on keeping stride with Amethyst, mind racing with the rehearsal of her next voice log. Lapis maintained the rear, relying on the footprints of the others underfoot to guide her along, eyes rarely leaving Pearl.

"So who won?" Peridot asked, picking the ribbons she had nearly forgotten from where they had slid past the collar of her suit.

"Steven," Garnet answered without a doubt. "He always finds a way."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic has been wildly fun to write. And to think, it was never meant to be -nearly- this long. Thank you celestialalignment for the open-ended writing prompt that would bubble into "Field Day"! And thank you all for your patience and as always, for reading. I loved each and every comment and it means a lot that you guys kept coming back for me. I hope to be back in the saddle with another fic soon, so keep your ears to the ground! Have a lovely week!
> 
> Edit: Oh HAY! Bonus! That I completely forgot about. I drew up a reference bust of Zircon for myself and see no reason why you guys can't get a glimpse. Ignore the armor. I honestly cannot draw armor. https://41.media.tumblr.com/7e27db9c3fdf3380290502b5c7087107/tumblr_nxseywGpCQ1ss78pro1_500.png


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